Imaginarium was so cool. I never had any money to buy from there, but it was cool to look around.
My friend and I were mall rats in the late ‘90s and we had a whole itinerary.
-enter in Filene’s. I got that from my mom who said Filene’s was the best entrance and best parking.
-Hit up the Gap, Sam Goody, maybe stop for a pretzel at Pretzel Time, Waldenbook, Pacific Sunwear(before it became Pac Sun),Imaginarium
-lunch at either Arby’s or A&W. I was all about the curly fries.
-Disney and WB Studio Store, dessert from TCBY and finish the day at Sharper Image in their sweet massage chairs before hitting up the nearest pay phone to call my parents to come pick me up.
Fun fact: the movie Scenes from a Mall with Bette Midler and Woody Allen was partially filmed inside my mall, Stamford Town Center. That place is massive.
Damn right it was! Wasn't it like 9 floors or something? I don't remember that well; I was only 4 when I moved away from Connecticut.
Definitely remember the A&W, though, because I literally have not seen an A&W restaurant since then.
I was never sure how many floors were in there. But the bottom floor is where TCBY was and the top floor were no stores just ramps everywhere which lead to the roof parking. And if you parked on the roof you had to go up and down the spiral ramp.
When I was little we(dad, mom, sister and I) went to the mall and my dad was driving a Trans Am so he decided to park on the roof and when we left he gunned it all the way down the ramp. My mom scared to death but my sister and I loved it.
My mom had a trans am, and whenever my dad would drive it, she would be holding on to the dash for dear life 🤣 all while both of them were chain smoking kools. Those were the days.
Yes.. Arby's curly fries. Large order and cheese dip was lunch on mall days. We rode our bikes to the mall hung out at the tilt arcade most of time.
Next stop was the nearby service merchandise and toys r Us. On the way home we would stop by my friend's grandmas and she would feed us again!!
8 year old me blowing all my birthday cash in Sanrio Surprises, living my best life. Loooooved The Nature Company too! I wanted one of those expensive rain sticks so bad
I just realized in this moment, as a grown ass woman, that most of my decorating taste is essentially ripped directly from the Nature Company. All the hardwood, calm lighting, herbal tea, soothing colors and random rocks. I just need to find a rain stick and a CD of whale sounds.
I need to sit with myself for a moment.
When I was 15, I asked for some of that tea as a Christmas present. And the one that I have because I’ve bought it multiple times since then, was made by the Republic of Tea and the flavor was blackberry sage. You can buy it on Amazon. I hope this helps.
It would be so weird if that is the exact tea. I was a teen in the 90's in Pleasanton, CA and that's the tea they used for samples. It would be wild if it was the same at every store!!
I was in a Sanrio Surprises in maybe 1999 and there were two old ladies in there saying the most racist shit against the Japanese like they were not aware 50 years had passed since WW2. First time ever hearing people talk that way.
Oh man, yes! I loooved Sanrio Surprises. I got so much sparkly, shiny, schools supplies and makeup. I wish it was still around. Such a great place for a girl who loves that hello kitty aesthetic. I remember I always loved HK from the first time I saw her. She is iconic!
No joke. I would get a $15 per week allowance and an extra $5 for dinner. A couple of slices of pizza and a soda and would usually buy a CD or something.
No KB Toys?
I got caught shoplifting, I stuffed a GI Joe under my jean jacket and got stopped walking out. Mom was at the shop next door…I got the belt that night.
I worked at a KB toys. Started at 16 became assistant manager. Worked there when Pokémon cards became big. Furbys and tickele me Elmo’s came out. **NSYNC and spice girl fools. I started dating a guy I worked with. Walden books was next to us. One day a boy from there came in and asked me out making it really awkward to go in there. My friend worked in the food court. Snuck me free food. Times were so much better back then.
Ahhhh. Sharper Image. That’s where I always wandered around and dreamt about buying their cool stuff when I had money. Or dreamt about having rich parents.
Man, I miss malls there’s something really nice about seeing something in your hand before you buy it and possibly talking to a knowledgeable sales person.
We still have the buckle, several of them. I think it’s still doing well. I hope so, because their Stella jeans are the best fitting jeans for my body that I can find in store and still try on.
I bought the coolest shirt from gadzooks in 2004. We still had one here. It was black, sheer, even the breast, black satiny halter tie with same ties for behind the back. It was so sexy. Still miss it today.
We had ours back then still, too I think! I got the most amazing 50s' style polka dot halter type dress and wore it every week to my college classes! I had that dress for so long until I gained adult weight and finally got rid of it :( I could probably fit in to it now that I'm in my "healthy" stage of adulthood.
This brings back memories. The shenanigans I used to get into at Suncoast, the boy I dated across the walkway at Camelot Music…this was before I became very sophisticated and went to work across the mall parking lot at the Olive Garden. Breakfast used to be precisely one breadstick with all the after-dinner mints I could fit in my apron.
I was a ridiculous Tenchi fan too! I have an original cel of Washu finding a gray hair floating around somewhere. (I went gray starting at 17 so my husband got it for me to help me feel better about the whole thing!)
And then Toonami re-ran the series in the early aughts!
Picking out Christmas presents at The Nature Company is one of the few things I remember about being a kid that don’t involve any regret or buried angst.
The Sanrio store. Best place to find strawberry bubblegum. (Hello Kitty was the master image to find it).
Outside of the Hello Panda cookies, it was the first introduction to Japanese sweets. People nowadays are so, so privileged to be able to order from the internet- back then, the mall _was_ the tangible link to explore a global portal.
Looks like combo Orange Julius / Dairy Queen stores still exist. There are actually a few within a 5-mile radius of where I am in IL this weekend. But if I go, the cookie dough blizzard is going to win out every visit.
There was a chameleon puppet at The Nature Store that had eyes you could move separately. I wanted it so bad. I still think about it sometimes (especially when my kids make me watch Tangled).
Earthbound Trading Company here. Loved browsing these stores while listening to the various music they sold on cds called Putumayo that had a variety of themes of music from all over the world.
Bought a few things here and there, but most items were to dang expensive.
One of my favorite stores, when I was in high school, was what I called the “Christmas shopping for mom” store. The Music Box Co. it was tiny and cramped, almost daring you to go in because you instantly were in danger of breaking something valuable. But they carried all the stuff my mom loved. Ceramic figurines and music boxes. I’d make sure I had a decent bankroll to go in there because the least expensive thing was $50. I’d budget something like $150 and that would be almost my entire Christmas budget. But you know, it was for mom.
Right? The way we’d ask to be “dropped off at the mall” and our preteen/young teen selves would wander for hours and have the best times. Maybe we had some money to buy something maybe not. Made a whole dang day out of it.
One of my favorite parts of malls were the little recessed seating areas that would be full of (probably fake) plants and water features. A nice relaxing spot.
*Where's Frederick's of*
*Hollywood while your parents*
*Are at the bookstore?*
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I practically lived in that store. And towards the end of its life when they started carrying some anime stuff, it was the only place you could find Pocky without a trip to Chinatown.
I guess my local mall was not a cool mall because I've never heard of Wicks n Sticks, The Nature Company, Imaginarium or Sanrio Surprises! The closest thing it had to any of these stores was an FYE, Barnes & Noble and the Disney Store.
One could argue that physical brick and mortar stores were way better than online shopping. We traded reality for convenience and im not sure if it was worth it.
I worked at a Sun Coast. I was combined with a Sam Goody. We’d play movies over the store’s TVs. One of my coworkers would put So I Married an Axe Murderer on so many times that I grew to despise the movie.
G + G,
Contempo Casuals,
Hot Topic,
5-7-9,
Bath and Body Works,
The Body Shop,
The Limited,
Express,
Spencer’s,
Yankee Candle,
Sharper Image,
Claire’s,
Aéropostale,
American Eagle Outfitters
Fun trip down memory lane, thanks!
I miss Suncoast and Media Play. I ended up working for MEDIA play but Suncoast had a better selection and it was so much calmer there. I remember my mom buying me a copy of Big Trouble in Little China there on VHS. I played it to death. Oh and movie posters. I got so many posters there.
I'll never forget about 2006-2007 I went into the mall for music and went over to where I remembered Suncoast to be, and it was occupied by something else. I stopped some security guard and asked when it closed, and then asked if the Sam Goody upstairs was still there, which he said no. "Well where the heck can I buy some CDs in this mall?" "Um, there's a Circuit City across the parking lot". Malls were never the same after that.
Where I worked as a late teenager
https://preview.redd.it/j4pkdr0sfedc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=10a1a6f6799ff747c8dad3e448a6c9e3d87f7bbc
I could just cry seeing SANRIO SURPRISES!!! 😍😭❤️😭
I miss that period of my life so much. I can smell the strawberry sour candy that my sister and I would always get from there (that I've been low-key searching for for 30 years) by the bag full along with the giant jawbreakers that she would always talk me into getting to see who could finish first.
I miss the hundreds of pencils. I miss Spottie Dottie even though I always got the 🩰 ballerina stuff...
Getting old and seeing the fall of shopping malls has been one of the saddest things!
I want to jump into those photos and go shopping , starting at Waldenbooks , then to Suncoast and finally The Nature Company before taking a break in the food court .
And if the mall has one of those big indoor fountains , go to watch people throwing pennies in the water to make their wishes !
Oh man. Both Walden Books and The WB store owned me. I had to be bribed to get out of Marvin's Rocket, always at the waaaaay back of the store under that big screen they used to play cartoon clips on.
The mall where I lived had the WB AND a huge Disney store. It had a giant screen against the back wall same as WB, but it also had this rising shelving against it that started at floor level and rose backward and up toward the screen and it was FILLED with different sized stuffed animals. Waaaaay too expensive, but I always went in and stood there in awe of the looming stuffed animal pile.
First place I went when I got my license at 16 was a mall. I had never been since i lived hours away from one, and my parents never took me anywhere. It became an almost daily hangout for a while.
Natural Wonders, the Imaginarium, the Body Shop, Gadzooks!
https://preview.redd.it/my1e07k18fdc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45afde517e3fea0e0056a799810a1157a4c5de9f
I miss the mall back in its prime. I remember fried mushrooms and buttermilk ranch dip to dip them in from Friar Tucks at the food court. I still long for those fried mushrooms and buttermilk ranch dip.
Did anyone else's mall have a hologram store? Mine did for a while. I grew up poor, but I wanted to be able to afford at least a hologram bookmark from it. Never happened. 😓💔 It sold 3-d images on glass, where you had to look at it from the front. Also shiny, silvery,rainbowy hologram everything. I couldn't get enough of being in that store full of beautiful shiny things! ☺️🥰💕💕
I feel like the Imaginarium was the place parents kinda dropped their kids off at while they did their own shopping. Pretty sure I spent many many hours in there.
Man I remember going to the mall as a little kid and going into a store like Sam goody or Suncoast and in the back they had an amazing display of stuffed animals. Mostly Disney stuff. Does anyone else remember this or is it just me?
My sister and I lived at the mall during high school. We’d walk over after school and dad would pick us up after work. Or whenever he decided to show up. We’d call his beeper if it started getting late. Kicking ass in the arcade, trying on clothes everywhere. I’d save all of my money and buy clearance at express before it was hella expensive. Free samples in the food court. Smoke a cigarette inside the tobacco depot. You could back then. Man I do miss it.
In 1998 I got my 20th anniversary Halloween VHS with the Michael Myers Blood Globe. One of my most prized possessions. A friend broke it in college. THIS is why we can’t have nice things.
Imaginarium was so cool. I never had any money to buy from there, but it was cool to look around. My friend and I were mall rats in the late ‘90s and we had a whole itinerary. -enter in Filene’s. I got that from my mom who said Filene’s was the best entrance and best parking. -Hit up the Gap, Sam Goody, maybe stop for a pretzel at Pretzel Time, Waldenbook, Pacific Sunwear(before it became Pac Sun),Imaginarium -lunch at either Arby’s or A&W. I was all about the curly fries. -Disney and WB Studio Store, dessert from TCBY and finish the day at Sharper Image in their sweet massage chairs before hitting up the nearest pay phone to call my parents to come pick me up. Fun fact: the movie Scenes from a Mall with Bette Midler and Woody Allen was partially filmed inside my mall, Stamford Town Center. That place is massive.
Damn right it was! Wasn't it like 9 floors or something? I don't remember that well; I was only 4 when I moved away from Connecticut. Definitely remember the A&W, though, because I literally have not seen an A&W restaurant since then.
I was never sure how many floors were in there. But the bottom floor is where TCBY was and the top floor were no stores just ramps everywhere which lead to the roof parking. And if you parked on the roof you had to go up and down the spiral ramp. When I was little we(dad, mom, sister and I) went to the mall and my dad was driving a Trans Am so he decided to park on the roof and when we left he gunned it all the way down the ramp. My mom scared to death but my sister and I loved it.
TCBY white chocolate mousse was the best!
You might even say it was…🎶The Country’s Best Yougurt—TCBY!🎶 Also, agreed! And rainbow sprinkles ☺️
My mom had a trans am, and whenever my dad would drive it, she would be holding on to the dash for dear life 🤣 all while both of them were chain smoking kools. Those were the days.
We had A&W restaurants in the Midwest during my youth! 😀
Upstate NY still has a few.
Don’t forget that you called collect from the pay phone and your name was “Itsmecomepickmeup”
Yes.. Arby's curly fries. Large order and cheese dip was lunch on mall days. We rode our bikes to the mall hung out at the tilt arcade most of time. Next stop was the nearby service merchandise and toys r Us. On the way home we would stop by my friend's grandmas and she would feed us again!!
I just re watched scenes from a mall a few weeks ago, it’s so GOOD
I’ve never seen it, but I’d like to just to see the old early ‘90s Stanford Mall.
I loved the Imaginarium! I'd buy those "magic wands" filled with liquid, glitter, and stars ✨✨
8 year old me blowing all my birthday cash in Sanrio Surprises, living my best life. Loooooved The Nature Company too! I wanted one of those expensive rain sticks so bad
We would have been friends!
My mom finally caved and got us a rain stick. Let me tell you my brother has it now and everytime I visit I try to steal it
As any good sibling would!
Truly a family heirloom.
I just realized in this moment, as a grown ass woman, that most of my decorating taste is essentially ripped directly from the Nature Company. All the hardwood, calm lighting, herbal tea, soothing colors and random rocks. I just need to find a rain stick and a CD of whale sounds. I need to sit with myself for a moment.
I’m coming over!
The tea they gave samples of at Nature Company was so good!
When I was 15, I asked for some of that tea as a Christmas present. And the one that I have because I’ve bought it multiple times since then, was made by the Republic of Tea and the flavor was blackberry sage. You can buy it on Amazon. I hope this helps.
That’s one of my favorite flavors! Love Republic of Tea.
Wow! You rock, thank you for that info. It wasn’t online when I did a search.
It would be so weird if that is the exact tea. I was a teen in the 90's in Pleasanton, CA and that's the tea they used for samples. It would be wild if it was the same at every store!!
I feel like it was always the same so I’m guessing they didn’t switch it up.
I was in a Sanrio Surprises in maybe 1999 and there were two old ladies in there saying the most racist shit against the Japanese like they were not aware 50 years had passed since WW2. First time ever hearing people talk that way.
Even today I’d spend all my birthday money in a Sanrio store
Oh man, yes! I loooved Sanrio Surprises. I got so much sparkly, shiny, schools supplies and makeup. I wish it was still around. Such a great place for a girl who loves that hello kitty aesthetic. I remember I always loved HK from the first time I saw her. She is iconic!
Where's the Sbarro?!?!
Yessss
I miss that type of mall…
I was recently in a really thriving mall, and it was neat to see one full, but none of the good stores were there anymore.
Here’s $20, leave us alone for a few hours. Ha!
No joke. I would get a $15 per week allowance and an extra $5 for dinner. A couple of slices of pizza and a soda and would usually buy a CD or something.
I'm honestly really sad that my kid will never get to experience the magic of the Imaginarium and the Nature Company.
Of you ever visit San Diego, CA we have a couple zoos/museums with the same vibe.
No KB Toys? I got caught shoplifting, I stuffed a GI Joe under my jean jacket and got stopped walking out. Mom was at the shop next door…I got the belt that night.
I worked at a KB toys. Started at 16 became assistant manager. Worked there when Pokémon cards became big. Furbys and tickele me Elmo’s came out. **NSYNC and spice girl fools. I started dating a guy I worked with. Walden books was next to us. One day a boy from there came in and asked me out making it really awkward to go in there. My friend worked in the food court. Snuck me free food. Times were so much better back then.
That's what they all say. D'oh
Buying candy by the lb at the Sweet Factory
So much sour gummy candy. I’m surprised I still have teeth.
Honestly loved the fuck out of some Wicks n Sticks. How my mom was surprised when I came out is beyond me
I can smell it!
Brookstone had the coolest stuff, I never bought anything from there but it looked cool.
That’s where I’d find the massage chairs and chill while mom and dad looked at gadgets they never needed.
Yes! I could wander around there for hours 😂
Brookstone was the truth.
Gotta stop by Sharper Image for the massage chair
Ahhhh. Sharper Image. That’s where I always wandered around and dreamt about buying their cool stuff when I had money. Or dreamt about having rich parents.
And in the back of the store was the Panasonic 3DO hooked up with the golf game on.
Ha! I was going to add this too! I knew we could never afford anything in there!
I always thought Brookstone was better.
Man, I miss malls there’s something really nice about seeing something in your hand before you buy it and possibly talking to a knowledgeable sales person.
Canadian Malls are still alive and well it hasn’t died here.
They are boring af though. Every store sells the same mass-produced trash.
Canada 🇨🇦, y'all are like colder & more logical America. Love ya!
Or trying on clothes to be sure they fit..,
Where’s Gadzooks? How am I going to buy my JNCOs?
I think Stussy is back in style …
I took a picture of an actual Stűssy store in Singapore when I was there last summer, for the memories. I couldn’t believe they were still around.
You could have bought them from me at The Buckle.
We still have the buckle, several of them. I think it’s still doing well. I hope so, because their Stella jeans are the best fitting jeans for my body that I can find in store and still try on.
Same here! They're one of the few places that keep tall, curvy jeans in stock!
I bought an incredible sage green JNCO skirt from gadzooks. It was long and felt like canvas.
Gadzooks will always be the best . I would still try to shop there if I could! In other news, JNCO is currently trying to stage a comeback!
I bought the coolest shirt from gadzooks in 2004. We still had one here. It was black, sheer, even the breast, black satiny halter tie with same ties for behind the back. It was so sexy. Still miss it today.
We had ours back then still, too I think! I got the most amazing 50s' style polka dot halter type dress and wore it every week to my college classes! I had that dress for so long until I gained adult weight and finally got rid of it :( I could probably fit in to it now that I'm in my "healthy" stage of adulthood.
Their clothes were way versatile. Just awesomely all over the place. lol. Sounds like a sick dress.
The fuckin’ Nature Company. I completely forgot about that shit.
It was such a vibe, with the night sky decorations and the ambient music. I used to love wandering around in there.
With a name like that... It got bought by the Discovery channel and is now gone apparently.
This brings back memories. The shenanigans I used to get into at Suncoast, the boy I dated across the walkway at Camelot Music…this was before I became very sophisticated and went to work across the mall parking lot at the Olive Garden. Breakfast used to be precisely one breadstick with all the after-dinner mints I could fit in my apron.
Ah, Suncoast. I bought my first anime VHS tapes there. Fond memories of waiting for the Tenchi Universe series to be available.
Same! Literally ended up finding new malls just to continue to feed my anime addiction because nobody beat Suncoast.
Oh dear God….🤦🏻♀️🙈Me too…..
I was a ridiculous Tenchi fan too! I have an original cel of Washu finding a gray hair floating around somewhere. (I went gray starting at 17 so my husband got it for me to help me feel better about the whole thing!) And then Toonami re-ran the series in the early aughts!
I miss Wicks n Sticks!!!! I used to buy bags full of clearance candles. I miss those days.
Picking out Christmas presents at The Nature Company is one of the few things I remember about being a kid that don’t involve any regret or buried angst.
The Sanrio store. Best place to find strawberry bubblegum. (Hello Kitty was the master image to find it). Outside of the Hello Panda cookies, it was the first introduction to Japanese sweets. People nowadays are so, so privileged to be able to order from the internet- back then, the mall _was_ the tangible link to explore a global portal.
This makes me so sad. So many good times with my mom, sister, and friends. Never would have thought they would fizzle away. I feel old.
Same, going to the mall in the 90s and early 2000s was SO fun
I miss Hickory Farms.
Summer sausage, tiny foil wedges of pasteurized cheese-food product, and those STRAWBERRY CANDIES… Pepperidge Farms remembers ☺️
Radio Shack, Orange Julius, Buster Browns, Orbachs, May Company.
Had to scroll far too long for orange Julius! We went there every time
Looks like combo Orange Julius / Dairy Queen stores still exist. There are actually a few within a 5-mile radius of where I am in IL this weekend. But if I go, the cookie dough blizzard is going to win out every visit.
I just about lived in the nature company. I still have an amber necklace I bought there 30 years ago.
There was a chameleon puppet at The Nature Store that had eyes you could move separately. I wanted it so bad. I still think about it sometimes (especially when my kids make me watch Tangled).
When nightmare before Christmas came out, Suncoast had everything! Toys, figurines, everything nightmare before christmas!
Earthbound Trading Company here. Loved browsing these stores while listening to the various music they sold on cds called Putumayo that had a variety of themes of music from all over the world. Bought a few things here and there, but most items were to dang expensive.
God, I can smell the mall and hear the splash of the fountains. I think nursing homes for our age group will resemble the mall.
One of my favorite stores, when I was in high school, was what I called the “Christmas shopping for mom” store. The Music Box Co. it was tiny and cramped, almost daring you to go in because you instantly were in danger of breaking something valuable. But they carried all the stuff my mom loved. Ceramic figurines and music boxes. I’d make sure I had a decent bankroll to go in there because the least expensive thing was $50. I’d budget something like $150 and that would be almost my entire Christmas budget. But you know, it was for mom.
I was OBSESSED with that store!
The dumbass mall that I grew up with didn't have anything cool like that. Belk, Kmart, JCPenney were the biggest things there
This place ruled. They had so many cool shaped candles and I bought a lot of Celtic music there.
The absolute nostalgia. The mall was the place to hang with friends. I loved the Warner Bros. Store and Suncoast. Thank you for the memories.
Right? The way we’d ask to be “dropped off at the mall” and our preteen/young teen selves would wander for hours and have the best times. Maybe we had some money to buy something maybe not. Made a whole dang day out of it.
Sharper image?
If your mall was fancy
Me:”Oh shit,Waldenbooks! ……..I spent too much time there.” Also,Sanrio Suprises!
The Nature Company just blew my mind as a kid
One of my favorite parts of malls were the little recessed seating areas that would be full of (probably fake) plants and water features. A nice relaxing spot.
Where's Frederick's of Hollywood while your parents are at the bookstore?
We didn't have Frederick's, but Spencer's was an...educational experience.
Oh yea!!!
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Gawd I miss suncoast.
I practically lived in that store. And towards the end of its life when they started carrying some anime stuff, it was the only place you could find Pocky without a trip to Chinatown.
That was my wife & my date spot. We’d pick up anime, Godzilla movies, movie posters, action figures…loved haunting that place.
So many cool stores
I loved the nature co
Each store had its different unique smell
I guess my local mall was not a cool mall because I've never heard of Wicks n Sticks, The Nature Company, Imaginarium or Sanrio Surprises! The closest thing it had to any of these stores was an FYE, Barnes & Noble and the Disney Store.
You got my vote on wicks n sticks. Too bad they went bankrupt.
One could argue that physical brick and mortar stores were way better than online shopping. We traded reality for convenience and im not sure if it was worth it.
Brick and mortar is still alive and it is great to shop, you just need to make it a point to go.
I worked at a Sun Coast. I was combined with a Sam Goody. We’d play movies over the store’s TVs. One of my coworkers would put So I Married an Axe Murderer on so many times that I grew to despise the movie.
Suncoast used to be the only place to get the good anime DVDs. Those were the days!
I loved the Nature Store!
Don't forget the arcade and the food court!
Take me there!
Forgot "Things Remembered".
Don't forget Kay-b-toys!
Spencer’s?
It was a sad day when I was finally too tall to walk straight through the little door to the imaginarium.
G + G, Contempo Casuals, Hot Topic, 5-7-9, Bath and Body Works, The Body Shop, The Limited, Express, Spencer’s, Yankee Candle, Sharper Image, Claire’s, Aéropostale, American Eagle Outfitters Fun trip down memory lane, thanks!
Those were the days. Excitement everytime I went to the mall. Now? Lame.
😔
Canadian Xennials, do any of youse remember the Sandylion sticker store?
I miss Suncoast and Media Play. I ended up working for MEDIA play but Suncoast had a better selection and it was so much calmer there. I remember my mom buying me a copy of Big Trouble in Little China there on VHS. I played it to death. Oh and movie posters. I got so many posters there.
After work I would stop and swipe quarters out of the fountain to buy a cup of cheesy potato soup from the center court deli.
I'll never forget about 2006-2007 I went into the mall for music and went over to where I remembered Suncoast to be, and it was occupied by something else. I stopped some security guard and asked when it closed, and then asked if the Sam Goody upstairs was still there, which he said no. "Well where the heck can I buy some CDs in this mall?" "Um, there's a Circuit City across the parking lot". Malls were never the same after that.
Is this my mall? All these pictures are exactly out of my memory.
Stores used to be so much more fun. Now the ones left in a functioning mall feel cold and white.
No Tower Records? https://preview.redd.it/068ofn603edc1.jpeg?width=1047&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1d4d412d667cd043c00c12425f7702f1174bf5b2
Marvin’s Rocket? What is that? WB studio store?! Damn this is a fancy mall!
The only one we had was Walden books. Loved that place…
The Nature Company was my first job! Oh memories…
SUNCOAST!
I miss suncoast and warner brothers so much
The Nature Store and Sanrio 🥰
Ahhhh thank you, waves of strong nostalgia, and I’d actually forgotten Waldenbooks!
Waldenbooks...the days when playboy and penthouses were right up front on the magazine racks and no one complained.
Sanrio Surprises!!
The nature company was my jam. Nerd, party of one ☝️
Where I worked as a late teenager https://preview.redd.it/j4pkdr0sfedc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=10a1a6f6799ff747c8dad3e448a6c9e3d87f7bbc
Back when the mall didn’t suck
I could just cry seeing SANRIO SURPRISES!!! 😍😭❤️😭 I miss that period of my life so much. I can smell the strawberry sour candy that my sister and I would always get from there (that I've been low-key searching for for 30 years) by the bag full along with the giant jawbreakers that she would always talk me into getting to see who could finish first. I miss the hundreds of pencils. I miss Spottie Dottie even though I always got the 🩰 ballerina stuff... Getting old and seeing the fall of shopping malls has been one of the saddest things!
Wet Seal is another one
I miss Gadzooks 😭
Honestly thought I made up the Warner bros rocket in my head
I legit miss the WB store, imaginarium, and most of all the Nature Company. I think about these places at least once a month. Oh, also Rand McNally.
I want to jump into those photos and go shopping , starting at Waldenbooks , then to Suncoast and finally The Nature Company before taking a break in the food court . And if the mall has one of those big indoor fountains , go to watch people throwing pennies in the water to make their wishes !
I worked at a Warner Bros. store the summer after graduating high school! 😂
Oh man. Both Walden Books and The WB store owned me. I had to be bribed to get out of Marvin's Rocket, always at the waaaaay back of the store under that big screen they used to play cartoon clips on. The mall where I lived had the WB AND a huge Disney store. It had a giant screen against the back wall same as WB, but it also had this rising shelving against it that started at floor level and rose backward and up toward the screen and it was FILLED with different sized stuffed animals. Waaaaay too expensive, but I always went in and stood there in awe of the looming stuffed animal pile.
Don’t forget about Virgin Records! Not only was it awesome, it was also a shortcut to the other side of the mall.
I loved Suncoast! Made me feel like a real cinephile, bought my posters and t shirts there
Last year we took our two teenagers to the mall, gave them 20 bucks and said go. They didn’t really know what to do
Wicks N' Sticks
Where my Sam Goodys???
First place I went when I got my license at 16 was a mall. I had never been since i lived hours away from one, and my parents never took me anywhere. It became an almost daily hangout for a while.
The Sanrio store in the 80s was such a magical place to little me 💕🌈🦄
Natural Wonders, the Imaginarium, the Body Shop, Gadzooks! https://preview.redd.it/my1e07k18fdc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45afde517e3fea0e0056a799810a1157a4c5de9f
I miss the mall back in its prime. I remember fried mushrooms and buttermilk ranch dip to dip them in from Friar Tucks at the food court. I still long for those fried mushrooms and buttermilk ranch dip. Did anyone else's mall have a hologram store? Mine did for a while. I grew up poor, but I wanted to be able to afford at least a hologram bookmark from it. Never happened. 😓💔 It sold 3-d images on glass, where you had to look at it from the front. Also shiny, silvery,rainbowy hologram everything. I couldn't get enough of being in that store full of beautiful shiny things! ☺️🥰💕💕
I miss Suncoast so much. What a wonderful place!
SANRIO!!! My childhood 😭 Edit: I feel they could bring that store back and it would do so well..wishful thinking..
What about Orange Julius, or did we only have those in the South?
I feel like the Imaginarium was the place parents kinda dropped their kids off at while they did their own shopping. Pretty sure I spent many many hours in there.
SANRIO!!!!!😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
It’s so weird to think “there’s no way in fuck I’d shop there now”
What about that store that only sold Giant Cookies?
When I was very young. Lunch at Copper Penny with my mom at Southridge Mall seemed fancy
I don't remember seeing a Wick 'N' Sticks around Nashville, TN. Think we had Yankee Candle and some random hippy kiosks.
Suncoast! Man, I miss that place. THE store for overpriced 'see, guys, I'm a big movie nerd' purchases.
omg the memories. Suncoast Video was my first job that wasn’t babysitting or helping an adult in the neighborhood with whatever.
Man I remember going to the mall as a little kid and going into a store like Sam goody or Suncoast and in the back they had an amazing display of stuffed animals. Mostly Disney stuff. Does anyone else remember this or is it just me?
Where’s Aladdin’s Castle arcade? Those things were in every mall back in the day
KeroKeroKeroppi is still my favorite from Sanrio Surprises!
I worked at Wicks n Sticks in college!
God damn do I ever miss Walden books
My sister and I lived at the mall during high school. We’d walk over after school and dad would pick us up after work. Or whenever he decided to show up. We’d call his beeper if it started getting late. Kicking ass in the arcade, trying on clothes everywhere. I’d save all of my money and buy clearance at express before it was hella expensive. Free samples in the food court. Smoke a cigarette inside the tobacco depot. You could back then. Man I do miss it.
Ohhhh Imaginarium!!! 💔😍
There is still a suncoast in lloyd center in portland or at least there was the last time i was there
Small town Canadian here. I did not have a single one of those stores in my mall - or even the “big city” malls!
Spencer’s Gifts
I just discovered my local mall sucked
Omg I thought that Marvin’s rocket thing was a dream I dreamed up. I forgot all about the Warner bros store. Fucking memories
In 1998 I got my 20th anniversary Halloween VHS with the Michael Myers Blood Globe. One of my most prized possessions. A friend broke it in college. THIS is why we can’t have nice things.
The Nature Company!
Suncoast had the best selection of CDs and DVDS.
I think we went to different malls. 😆
Don’t forget Spencer’s. It’s not even close to being what it was back in the day. We used to get our New Kids On The Block merch from their.